Long story short

Our opinions on cell phones on flights, the missing health study around the Dewey Loeffel landfill, and new military toys for your friendly neighborhood police.

Please text, don’t talk

The good news: The Federal Aviation Administration has lifted the ban on air passengers using Kindles, iPads and laptops during takeoffs and landings. The bad news: It’s considering allowing cellphone calls during flights.

Please, no. Cost cutting, tightened security and cramped seating have already made air travel stressful and unpleasant. A guy next to you blabbing on his cellphone can only make it worse.

Here’s a thought, airlines: Allow the much less intrusive text messaging while in flight, or create a separate space on the plane, kind of like the old phone booths, where people can make calls in private.

Oh, and before the money-hungry airlines get any ideas, it shouldn’t cost extra to sit in a no-phone quiet zone. A fee for those yack-booths is a whole ’nother thing.

Loeffel’s health study

Companies whose hazardous waste was dumped for years at the Dewey Loeffel landfill in Rensselaer County have agreed to pay for a filtration system to remove toxins from the area groundwater.

Now it’s time for the state Department of Health to heed the call of residents and local officials who have repeatedly asked for a study on the health of the people living around the site, where an estimated 46,000 tons of industrial cleaning chemicals, PCBs, paint and waste oils were buried between 1952 and 1968.

The DOH, citing preliminary reviews, says no additional screening is needed. So we ask: What have they found? Or what is DOH afraid of finding?